Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart

 PlayStation Vita
User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 40 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 27 out of 40
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 40
  3. Negative: 8 out of 40
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  1. DMD
    Mar 6, 2015
    6
    A slightly different take on the HyperDimension games.

    Noire is winning the console wars in GamIndustri. However, she's tricked into doing something that depowers all the goddesses, and she's has to fix what she's messed up. She does it with the help of the other goddesses, her generals, and you, her secretary. It's a decent strategy RPG, with some punishing difficulty. It gets hard    A slightly different take on the HyperDimension games.

    Noire is winning the console wars in GamIndustri. However, she's tricked into doing something that depowers all the goddesses, and she's has to fix what she's messed up. She does it with the help of the other goddesses, her generals, and you, her secretary.

    It's a decent strategy RPG, with some punishing difficulty. It gets hard early on, with bosses and even normal enemies that can hit you for 75% of your energy. You can strengthen yourself by sticking close together; this generates "love points" which can let you use special abilities, turn the goddesses into their CPU forms, or even summon reinforcements. It's a pity that doing so puts you in risk of aoe attacks. The game feels like it ought to be easier, because the story is light and fun; but the gameplay seems tuned to people who like harder SRPGs like Fire Emblem. Even on chapter two I started dying often enough to consider using the "make this fight easier" button.

    The story is typical Neptunia, and makes with the fan service often. It's probably the best of the Neptunia games gameplay-wise, but isn't a top-tier SRPG. There are some mild dating sim elements, but they are nowhere near as intensive as Producing Perfection, and trickle in slowly during each chapter. It's a must-buy if you like the series, and a decent SRPG otherwise.    … Expand
  2. ryuzaki57
    Feb 26, 2015
    6
    Hyperdevotion Noire comes as a Strategy-RPG very much like Disgaea. You have a sky view, a grid and a dozen of units to lead to victory. In that way, it's a pretty good Tactical since it brings a sufficiently fresh and varied gameplay.

    Indeed, STING's latest work has you face a lot of unusual situations, like various types of vicious traps, crates to pile up or use as mortar (deadly),    Hyperdevotion Noire comes as a Strategy-RPG very much like Disgaea. You have a sky view, a grid and a dozen of units to lead to victory. In that way, it's a pretty good Tactical since it brings a sufficiently fresh and varied gameplay.

    Indeed, STING's latest work has you face a lot of unusual situations, like various types of vicious traps, crates to pile up or use as mortar (deadly), wacky transportation systems or a virus to eradicate! Hyperdevotion Noire also has difference of height as a parameter : it will make you lose one turn if you fall from too high, or give you advantage if you have the high ground (the «jump» highly varying depending on the character). In particular, the heroines can fly in goddess form and nullify the height requirement. Careful though, this is only once a mission.

    Furthermore, Hyperdevotion Noire borrows Fire Emblem Awakening's support system, complexifying it more. If you have one or more allies around you when you use a skill, you benefit from diverse effects like less MP/AP used or a formidable boost in attack power. This system is quite hooking strategically speaking and it is critical to master it to beat bosses, because this game has no mercy. Numerous times it felt absomutely tiring : some bosses can OHKO several characters at once, status ailments are rife, a couple of objectives were unbearable and I've been surrounded more than once without any chance of breaking through. That said, Hyperdevotion Noire borrows to Sen no Kiseki the system of retry with lowering the difficulty, which was more than welcomed since I could beat it in the end.

    The story is ridiculously far-fetched, but the game comes with the usual references to the gaming world at large. This time, the 18 new characters of this spin-off don't represent consoles or publishers, but entire genres or whole series! We immediately find out that Tsunemi embodies the Project Diva series and Bio Resident Evil. Some parallels are really fun, like the rivalry between Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy or the clever parody of Lightning Returns. However, those Easter eggs aren't all that sophisticated or very clear, which was already a issue in Neptunia Victory.

    If there's one department in which STING's product meets expecations, it's without a doubt in its fan-service, whose quantity and nature sets a new record, even beyond ReBirth2's kinky offering. Well, given that STING had delivered the (very) steamy Dungeon Travelers 2, I expected no less. Although events are not all sexually oriented, some have quite intense innuendo...

    Also in the fan-service category, STING has implemented a mini dating -sim which puts you more or less in relationship with Noire (only her). It's important to stress that the story is told from the point of view of the player, a bit like in the first GBA Fire Emblem. I say more or less because this feature completely misses the point : it's actually a series of questions/answers in which you help Noire managing Lastation's people's complaints. I found it not that interesting, especially given that it's not dubbed at all (kinda lame for a dating-sim). In general, the game is voiced only in the main parts, which diminishes the pleasure in side parts.

    My main concern with this game is its graphical presentation. For starters, I abhor super-deformed/chibi characters (but that's my opinion, some people do like it), but aside that, this second spin-off offers some terrible 3D while ReBirth2 and the upcoming Action Neptune U are absolute masterpieces of beauty. I do reckon that visual pleasure is essential to bishôjo games, and here we don't have it. Super Heroine Chronicle did manage to make the best of the same type of design, Hyperdevotion Noire didn't even try.

    To sum up, Hyperdevotion Noire is a rather good Tactical, an excellent ecchi game but its miserable budget drags it down where it could have made wonders.    … Expand
  3. xDaudex
    May 25, 2015
    7
    Pros:
    Characters
    Writing Abilities make game play later on in the game a lot of fun Cons: Game is not that fun at the start because you do not have many abilities On hard it is pretty much required that you do all of the repeat and extra missions to stand a chance The mechanic where you try to make the right chat selection to Noire is broken because you can save before each one to    Pros:
    Characters
    Writing
    Abilities make game play later on in the game a lot of fun

    Cons:
    Game is not that fun at the start because you do not have many abilities
    On hard it is pretty much required that you do all of the repeat and extra missions to stand a chance
    The mechanic where you try to make the right chat selection to Noire is broken because you can save before each one to insure you get them right    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

31
#31 Best PS Vita Game of 2015
13
#13 Most Discussed PS Vita Game of 2015
20
#20 Most Shared PS Vita Game of 2015

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
68

Mixed or average reviews - based on 24 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 24
  3. Negative: 3 out of 24
  1. Destructoid
    Apr 28, 2015
    45
    The cloying characters and banal story are just so incredibly vapid, and the respectable strategic gameplay just isn't enough to compensate for the myriad of drawbacks and stumbling blocks.
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  2. RPGamer
    Apr 8, 2015
    70
    A strategy RPG seems like a perfect fit for the Neptunia series, and this largely ends up being true. A fun battle system combined with a large and diverse set of characters to choose from makes for a good deal of fun.
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  3. The Digital Fix
    Mar 25, 2015
    70
    Noire provides a different, perhaps more traditional leading lady to the game, and helps balance some of the randomness that the other characters demonstrate. It’s a fun enough ride, and franchise fans will lap it all up, but maybe it needed to go even further to demonstrate some wider appeal.
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